I heard about these highly invasive fish a few years ago. I found an amazing video clip of a guy bowfishing them (see below). Apparently, he was even making a few bucks offering small tours.

These big fish that leap up to 10 feet out of the water are called silver carp.

I don't know how many of you enjoy water sports, but could imagine water skiing and being hit by a 40 lb. flying carp? It's happened. But that's not the big danger.

The real fear is these big silver carp (often the media just calls them Asian carp) get into Lake Michigan (then the other great lakes) and take over. The fish grow and multiple much quicker than the native fish and take over the waters.

The effort to stop the carp started in 2002 with an underwater electric fence that was placed in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. It appears to work and second more permanent electric barrier was put into place in 2004. I guess Michigan lacked faith in these control efforts so they filed a lawsuit with the supreme court to close the canal. It's estimated that $1.5 billion worth of shipments go through the canal so Illinois filed a counter suit. Just the other day the supreme court rejected Michigan's lawsuit. So I'm wondering if there were some fish stories being discussed at the supreme court.

This is yet another tale of foreign species being introduced into a new area with disastrous results. These fish were introduced in the 70's to catfish farms as a way to remove algae. Not a good idea.

Now the White House has joined the carp fight and plans to hold a carp summit. I hope some results other than jokes for the late shows come from the carp summit.

18 comments:

I didn't realize it was such a problem. That would not be good if they took over the waters!

FYI....Dave H. says he has repeatedly tried to comment, but is having a problem doing so. Also, I just had to fill out all my info. again to comment. That could turn people off, if you have to do that every time you comment.

thanks - yes the carp need to be stopped - how is the big questionabout the comments - I've seen some complaints from dave on the last post about this system. Also, there's a comment from Unknown mami about these issues (she has been using the system for a few months now). I also went to a public computer yesterday to see if a guest (no registration) can leave a comment. yes but you do need to leave a valid email.I do wonder if the problem dave is having might be related to his browser. I use firefox and it seems to work fine.

Just been to update my account at DISQUS (sorry about the photo, only one I've got) where it say ther was a probliwm with the server for some hours om 20 Jan. This may well have been when I was failing with it? So full steam ahead (Damn, I might even use it at HC...)

You are right I think. Not every strange thing happening today needs to be made into a joke, some things just need to be dealt with. I hope there is a sensible conclusion to this issue. Be sure to let us know.

Isn't there some way to let fisherman go nuts and catch all the carp they want without catching other fish? And I'm afraid with a phrase like "carp summit", joke writers may find that irrestible. On the other hand, maybe it's not big enough "national" news for them to pay attention to.

I don't know many details about the fishermen but I think they can take as many of those silver carp as they want. Some people eat them (a story in Chicago Trib about that) but most people will not eat them. I do think they could use them for pet food. But even if fishermen could remove most of them they still need to stop the spread because fishing them won't get all of them.

about lisleman

I was not born lisleman. I moved there. I was born a baby. I started breathing air more than sixty years ago. Oh if you happen to read a news report about
"Lisle man" please notice my moniker is one word. I'm not responsible
for my crazy neighbors.

Sha la la lala live for today.

One of the best things of my life
(everyone's I think) is learning. I like science especially physics.
Don't ever stop asking why because there is an endless amount to
learn. Two of our daughters became teachers. This and our grandkids keeps the learning idea alive for me.

I've accepted that we all have different talents. Most of time this works well for everyone unless your talent is illegal.

Blog on and don't lose that linky feeling.

Does anyone read this far down on these things? I should hide a secret password to a bank account with some money in it. Anyone have a spare bank account with a little cash?